Note 9 — BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.

Of this nobleman, the ancestor of the Earl of Uxbridge, a very full account is given in Dugdale, from which it appears that he was born at Wednesbury in Staffordshire, his father being one of the Serjeants-at-Mace of the city of London. Under Henry VIII. he was Ambassador to France, and Master of the Post. In 1549 he obtained a grant of the fee of the house without Temple Bar, first called Paget House, then Leicester House, and lastly Essex House. Two years afterwards he was Ambassador to the Emperor Charles V., and in the same year was called by writ to Parliament by the title of Lord Paget of Beaudesert, Com. Salop., and soon after sent to treat for peace with France. On the fall of the Duke of Somerset, he was charged with designing the murder of several noblemen at Paget House, and in consequence was sent to the Tower, deprived of his honours and offices, and fined £6000, one-third of which was remitted. On the death of Edward VI. he joined the Earl of Arundel, the chief champion of Queen Mary, and gained her favour by his activity. Soon after her marriage with Philip, he was sent Ambassador to the Emperor at Brussels, to consult Cardinal Pole respecting the restoration of Popery. In this reign he was made Lord Privy Seal. Lord Paget died very aged, in 1563, and was buried at Drayton in Middlesex. He left issue by Anne, daughter of —— Prestin, Esq., Com. Lanc., three sons and five daughters. His eldest son Henry succeeded him in the title; but dying in 1568, the peerage descended to his next brother, Thomas, whom Tusser claims also for a patron. Thomas being zealously affected to Popery, and implicated in the plots in favour of Mary Queen of Scots, fled and was attainted 1587, and died three years after at Brussels, leaving one son, Thomas, who succeeded him.